Tech Rumination by Anirudh Vempati

 If you're looking for a low-cost and easy way to add Wi-Fi capabilities to your projects, you might want to consider the NodeMCU ESP8266 board. The NodeMCU ESP8266 is a development board that combines the ESP8266 chip, a powerful microcontroller with built-in Wi-Fi, and a CP2102 USB-to-serial converter, which allows you to program and communicate with the board using a USB cable. The NodeMCU ESP8266 board comes with the NodeMCU firmware, which is a Lua-based environment (Lua is a lightweight programming language) that allows you to write and run code on the board without any additional tools. You can also program the NodeMCU ESP8266 board using the Arduino IDE, which gives you access to a large library of functions and examples. Alternatively, you can use MicroPython, which is a version of Python 3 optimized for microcontrollers. You can also connect sensors and actuators to the board using its GPIO (General-Purpose Input/Output) pins, which sup...

Scratch is a very helpful programming language for kids. It was developed by MIT  ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) and allows kids to create their own interactive stories, games, and animations using building blocks. This type of programming is referred to as block coding. Scratch is also an online community where kids can share their projects and learn from each other. Scratch is easy to use and fun to learn. Kids can drag and drop different blocks to make their characters move, talk, and interact. They can also add sounds, music, and backgrounds to make their projects more engaging. Scratch helps kids develop their creativity, logic, and problem-solving skills . Scratch is free and available for Windows, macOS, and some Android devices. You can also use Scratch in your web browser by going to scratch.mit.edu and clicking on "Create". If you want to learn more about Scratch , you can check out onli...